I am the editor of Forbes Magazine, and believe strongly that entrepreneurial capitalism and market-based thinking can solve the world's problems. This is my second stint at Forbes -- between 1991 and 1997, I was a reporter, a staff writer (five cover stories), associate editor and Washington bureau chief. In between, I caught the start-up bug: I co-founded P.O.V. Magazine (Adweek's Startup of the Year), and then launched Doubledown Media (Trader Monthly, Dealmaker, Private Air, etc.). As a fattening hobby, I have reviewed restaurants for various magazines since college (and was a National Magazine Award finalist for my wine writing). I used to think chronicling the world's greatest business minds made me a great entrepreneur, but I now realize my time as an entrepreneur made me an acute business journalist. For the full story, check out my book, just out in paperback, The Zeroes: My Misadventures In the Decade Wall Street Went Insane.

How PGA Golf Star Luke Donald Aced the Wine Business

FedEx dropped off two giant boxes at PGA Tour star Luke Donald’s suburban Chicago McMansion on a recent morning. The contents: 200 pounds of frozen Miyazaki beef, a trophy from a recent tour win in Japan. Donald hoists one side of a box, and, alarmed at the potential damage to a back that has chalked up over $30 million in winnings on the PGA Tour, I grab the other side. We hump it across the house into his garage, where the majestically marbled beef, which retails for about $250 a pound, awaits its new home–a meat refrigerator that Donald purchased specifically for this shipment.

If you missed the memo, Luke Donald is not your average sleep-and-eat-golf jock. He majored in art at Northwestern, where he met his wife, Diane. He lives primarily in suburban Chicago, versus some gated Sunbelt resort community. And he grew up in England watching his parents sip Bordeaux, his dad a mainstay of the local wine society.

Donald has taken Dad’s fondness for fine wine and turned it into full-fledged devotion. His personal label, the Luke Donald Collection, will appear on 72,000 bottles of California chardonnay, viognier and, in a hat tip to his parents, a Bordeaux-style red blend that carries the classic British description claret.

In marrying golf and wine, Donald, who briefly held the world’s number one ranking last year, joins an impressive number of pitch-and-putt drink purveyors. Australian Greg Norman, of course, helped put his country’s grapes on the wine map; South Africans Ernie Els and David Frost also have labels from their homeland. Brand names like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer treat their wines like product extensions. Even golf announcers are getting in on the act: Jim Nantz named his California wine, naturally, The Calling.

Like most celebrities, Donald has embraced the concept of doing business with other people’s money. Terlato Wines, America’s largest marketer of premium wine, fronts the money, while Donald gets a royalty cut. “It’s pretty low-risk,” concedes Donald.

But here’s where Donald blazes a different trail: He takes a hands-on approach to every facet of the process. Donald helped design the modern, modular label, fronted by his dramatic signature. He helped source the grapes. Donald even helps blend the juice itself. “I wanted it to be my style–contemporary European,” he says.

Of course, contemporary European-style wine using top California grapes costs. Donald’s wine retails between $30 and $50, leading to something of a paradox: People who buy wine based on a celebrity’s name don’t pay 50 bucks a bottle–and people who pay 50 bucks a bottle don’t buy based on a celebrity’s name. “We had to put a product out there to turn people’s heads,” says Donald. While not quite head-turning, his chardonnay is certainly grin-inducing, like a lively, crisp Burgundy.

Donald’s real wine education started on the greens during college, where he shared a golf coach with Bill Terlato, Terlato’s second-generation CEO. “I had a passion for golf,” says Terlato, a six handicap. “He had a passion for food and wine.” They began swapping respective tips, and after Donald turned pro and began cashing big checks, he asked Terlato to help him build out his collection.

The stash has grown to 800 bottles, all stored below the meat refrigerator in a glass-enclosed, climate-controlled cellar that Donald customized with a metallic floor and stained wood. It’s guarded by a password-coded keypad, and, once inside, you see that the wine racks fan out clockwise: champagnes on the far left, including vintage Dom Perignon and Bollinger (the tony “house pour”). Then come whites, followed by reds, ranging from light to heavy. The far right? “That’s the ‘do not touch’ area for my wife.”

“Yes, he has plenty of showy reds, from Insignia to Opus One to his favorite, the 1985 Lynch Bages. But as with all true aficionados, his favorites carry a backstory: the case of Vega Sicilia Unico from Spain’s Ribera del Duero that Sergio Garcia gave him for his wedding; a bottle of George pinot noir, from Sonoma, courtesy of another member of the Chicago golfing mafia, Michael Jordan. Even the pata negra ham, teed-up on a special holder, has an interesting provenance: It was a gift last year from European Ryder Cup captain José María Olazábal. Donald mixes these ego assets with a few “good deals at Costco,” including a bottle of 1999 Faustino Rioja that also graces my wine fridge.

“By 2007 Donald had demonstrated enough know-how and determination–and made enough of a name for himself on the course–to persuade Terlato to move forward with a label. The first bottle hit the shelves five years ago, and they’ve sold several million dollars’ worth of wine since. As I sit through a boozy lunch with his lineup, it’s easy to hear Donald glide toward foodie pretension. (“The rapini takes the edge off,” Donald notes while washing down lamb with his namesake red.)

“Donald harbors thoughts about expanding his wine holdings after he retires from the PGA Tour (“though you can play until you’re 60,” notes the 35-year-old). He holds an option to buy part of a Napa vineyard from which he sources grapes. Until then he is focused on the winter house he’s building in Jupiter, Fla. He is making wine the house’s centerpiece, with a glass-enclosed tasting room, complete with a dining room table. And, since you never know when Sergio Garcia might show up bearing gifts, this time he’s amping up the cellar capacity to accommodate a proper 1,000 bottles.

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